We have responded to the invitation of Jesus, the one who loves us. At some level we have expressed our desire to be with Jesus in his mission from God. Now we give ourselves over to the desires of this growing love-companionship relationship.

As we grow in love for someone — especially someone who has done so much for us — we experience a powerful desire not only to be with the one we love but also to know everything we can about that person. In the fascination of love we say that we can’t get enough of the one we love.

For this week, and for the weeks ahead, our one desire is to come to know as much as we can about Jesus. Of course, this is not head knowledge. It’s more the kind of discovery that leads to deeper feelings of intimacy and love, and deeper desires to be with him in his mission. To know him more intimately that I might love him more deeply, that I might follow him more closely.

In the early days of this retreat, we looked at our own story, through the imaginative exercise of looking through the images in the photo album of our life. Now we ask Jesus to show us his photo album. In our desire to know more about him, we ask Jesus to show us everything — to tell us his story — that we might fall more deeply in love with the one we will come to know so intimately. The one who has invited us to be with him in his mission.

This week we start at the beginning. We imagine that in God’s eternity, the Trinity of Persons in God looked down on human history and was filled with infinite compassion that missioned Jesus to save us. The incredible photo of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, can help us imagine the span of human history that evoked God’s compassion. We know that that expression of love by God resulted in our salvation history — the preparation, the promises, the expectation, and finally the birth of Jesus and his life, death, and resurrection for us.

Let’s use the helps this week to enter into the mystery of the Incarnation, the choice of God to redeem our world. We’ve reviewed all that sin and rebellion in our world has meant, including our personal sin. Now we imagine the response of God to the sin of the world — the missioning of Jesus. And let’s begin to express our desire to know his origins that we might fall more deeply in love with him and be united with his mis­sion, however he should choose to invite us to join him.

Consider sharing the graces you have received
this week with others making the retreat.